


The wartime chronicles

by Pearlislove



Series: A rare love story [6]
Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (1963), Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, F/F, F/M, Feels, Gallifrey, Gen, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Multi, Polyamory, Relationship(s), Time War
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-06
Updated: 2018-06-04
Packaged: 2019-03-27 21:19:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 20,292
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13889346
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pearlislove/pseuds/Pearlislove
Summary: The Doctor and Josie has arrived at Gallifrey, and the time war has begun.The threats and promises of the war being fought around them will test The Doctor and his friends to their limits, but in the middle of it all, can they still find their happiness?Pain and loss, they define us as much as hapiness of love. All of them, belong to The Doctor's life.





	1. The beginning

**Author's Note:**

  * For [USS_Spocko](https://archiveofourown.org/users/USS_Spocko/gifts).



> Hey, I'm back!!! I got a bit burnt out writing so much of this but here I am, bacj with chapter one.
> 
> Huge thank you to In_time_for_tea who is liyerally the life and soul of this famfic holy moly this would not even exist, not a single one fo these fanfics, without them!
> 
> This story is dedicated to Nate (LesbianChesterton/Ussspock/USS_Spocko) who is ABSOLUTELY AMAZING & swell & I love sweetie u go.

Staring at one of the many pieces having come loose from the vehicle wreckage only a few meters away, Leela tried to get rid of the tears threatening in her eyes. It wasn’t becoming for a warrior of the Sevateem to cry, but the sight that lay before her had crushed her heart and turned her gut inside out. 

 

A red double decker bus, having violently popped out of the Vortex and crash landed among the abandoned warehouse areas at the edge of Arcadia. When Romana had heard of it - and seeing how unusual it was, she’d found out very quickly - she had hand picked Leela to go look at it. A medical team was to come along and be at her disposal, but she was to lead the operation.

 

She was to determine, if there was any survivors.

 

Taking a hitching breath, Leela took one step further towards a wreckage, stopping abruptly and backing again as she felt something crunching underneath her shoe.

 

Moving her foot, Leela stared down at the ground, looking so see what she stepped on. Immediately, she could feel her breath catching in her throat.

 

A Sonic Screwdriver, broken into three and reduced to little more than scrape, had ended up on the ground amongst the rest of the junk. It scared her to think that it would have been beyond recognition, had Leela not  been so familiar with it.

 

Leela knew she had only seen such an item once before, and as she looked up at the wreckage before her, a furious and desperate scream tore from her throat. “Doctor!”

 

The only thought that runs through her head, is that The Doctor is there. Among the wreckage lies her friend, and Leela can’t even stop to think as she run over to the buss.

 

One of the nurses, a dark haired Scendeles woman in a purple dress, sees her coming and rises from her position kneeled on the ground to greet her. “Leela” Amidala speak,  her sunkissed hands wrapping around Leela’s biceps when she doesn’t acknowledge her. She is restless, and were it not for those cool hands on her arm, Leela didn’t know what she’d do. “Miss Sevateem, it’s fine.” Amidala pause, and Leela look at her, daring her to repeat herself. “We think the inner dimensions are intact. In the ship. The shell is destroyed and we can’t open the door, but if anyone's in there they got a reasonable chance at survival still.”

 

“What do you mean you can't open the door?” Leela doesn’t even hear the hole sentence. She only heard what was most important, her frenzied brain automatically filtering out the rest. Locked door, that was what she heard, and she knew she could handle it. Leela could open it and find The Doctor.  “Show me!” She demands, and Amidala nodes fearfully.

 

“Come” Amidala says, gently taking Leela’s hand and guiding her around the wreckage to the other side. Piles of scrap metal and once important parts of the vehicle lies piled up around them, medics without anything better to do trying to sort through what remained of the TARDIS as they waited for someone to break in to it and give them someone to use their medical competence on.

 

“I wonder how the ship was so badly damaged...” Leela mumbled absentmindedly, stroking the damaged red coating on the bus. It felt warm, almost dangerously so, and she wondered if anyone had checked on the timerotor yet. If it got overheated and blew up, it could destroy all of Arcadia, if not Gallifrey.

 

“The Vortex turned against it. If a TARDIS takes off from an unstable point in time, it will cause a temporal crack within the Vortexes, which will mean that the Vortex will push more energy against it in order to stabilize its dimensions. This puts extreme stress on the outer shell. Older models are badly protected against this, a TTB35 almost not at all.” Amidala replied, quickly hurrying over to the door of the buss. It was a metal rectangle marked out in the red painted side of the buss, unlike the rest of the vehicle painted blue for the convenience of it all. “Here’s where we need to get in. The force of impact damaged the locking mechanism, but if we get in there the inner dimensions should be fine.”

 

“That’s what I’m here for” Leela mumbled, examining the twisted metal for a minute before preparing to kick it down. If it was one thing she’d learned traveling with The Doctor, it was that a good kick always did the trick. Searching out a weak spot, Leela aimed her boot, and kicked.

 

With all the power she possessed, she kicked at the door, and was immediately rewarded with having said object fall inwards and onto the floor. 

 

“Round up the other doctors, Amidala. I’ll go in and check inside, okay?” Leela’s heart was beating wildly in her chest, and she felt so scared it hurt, but she kept her cool. She was a Sevateem warrior, and she had already showed more emotion than she was comfortable with displaying in any kind of public situation. “Now!” She barked at last, wanting make sure she was obeyed.

 

Not looking back to see if Amidala had listened, Leela entered through the door. Immediately, she had to duck under a piece of jagged metal hanging down from the ceiling, climbing in between it and a piece of the floor sticking up as well.

 

Once she fell out on the other side, though, Leela found that the inner dimensions were indeed intact. Right in front of Leela stood the console, and on the floor around it she counted four people. It was hard to see as red emergency lightning encompassed the room in relative darkness, but Leela’s eyes were quickly adapting. 

 

Resisting the impulse to throw the bodies onto their backs at neckbracking speed in order to find who might be The Doctor, Leela managed to get hold of her emotions. Instead, she started to check all the victims in a more practical manner.

 

First, she checked the older blonde haired woman lying half-way in under the console. A river of orange-tinted blood ran down her face from a large cut on her forehead, and a steady double beat could be felt under Leela’s carefully placed fingers, revealing the woman to presumably be the owner of the TARDIS. She was in no direct danger, Leela concluded, she was aware the cut would need attention soon. 

 

Nonetheless, Leela moved on. Next, she went up to a taller woman with blue-pink hair. She lay splayed out on her side, and while Leela could see no injury at first glance, the dried in smear of blood across her face and on the floor told a different story. Kneeling next to her, Leela inspected the body carefully to try and find the source. Finally she tried to open the girl’s fists, seeing that they had been sliced into, crisscrossing lacerations having covered her entire palms in niw dry blood. Two fingers to her wrist revealed that she was still living, but had but one heart beat.

 

A humanoid. Leela’s stomach did an extra flip, and she gagged. The presence of a humanoid was only further proof that The Doctor was onboard. She could feel all the feelings bubbling up inside her, again,  and she almost loses her hard earned controle, were it not for her being interrupted i  the middle of her thoughts.

 

“Leela?” Amidala had come back, bringing with her the two doctors assigned to her. They were all standing at the other side of the sharp pieces of metal reaching from the floor and the ceiling to make a tight hole leading into the console room.

 

“There’s four people here. Her over there is a Time Lady, double heartbeat and a cut on the head. Still bleeding last I looked.” Leela gestured over to the blonde woman by the console. Then, she pointed at the blue haired woman. “This one is humanoid, with one heart. Lacerations on her hands.”

 

Sighing, she lets go of the blue haired girl and moves on. There is still two more people lying around, and Leela knows one of them  _ have  _ to be The Doctor. “I’ll check the other two, but take care of those I mentioned. I will update you on what is wrong with them.”

 

Nodding, the Time Lords and Ladies hesitantly climbed through the opening and set about doing what was necessary, taking care of the two women as Leela went on to check the rest of the bodies. 

 

Next to the blue haired woman, was another girl. She was so small, short to begin with and with her legs held tightly against her chest, she almost disappeared into nothingness. Curly brown hair covered her face, and when Leela first lay eyes on her she almost thought her a child. Moving her hair out of the way, though, the woman’s face was that of a young woman, definitely not a child. As Leela turned her over on her back, she saw that she was holding a stuffed toy panda to her chest. It was curious, but not the weirdest Leela had seen, and after prying it away from the girl she placed it in her belt. In the woman’s chest there was a steady single beat, and beside a bump on the back of her head and an arm that looked broken, there was not really any injuries to the young girl.

 

“She’s clear. Bump on the head, broken arm, one heart, maybe a concussion.” Leela reported when she was done inspecting her, her heart catching in her throat as she finally turned to the last body.

 

A tall, slender man with curly brown hair and dirty, bloodied clothes that felt all too familiar. She remembered The Doctor taking her to London in the 1800s, and recognised the design of the clothes. It was not The Doctor Leela had once known, but her fingers on his throat revealed a double pulse and oh, she knew, that this was it. This was The Doctor, her Doctor, with an entirely new design but the same man either way.

 

“Leela? Is he alright?” Creeping up behind her, Amidala suddenly put her hand on Leela’s shoulder and she jumped.

 

“Yes!” She exclaimed, knowing that her panicked voice and mannerism was definitely not reflecting it. Finally, she managed to calm herself down and give a more elaborate answer. “Well, they are alive. There’s...they’ve been bandaged, already. And they got quite a lot of bruises and smaller cuts, but aside from the bandage across their side it’s nothing major.” She pauses, and try to quell the onslaught of entirely unjustified emotion. Before her lay The Doctor, unconscious, injured and just barely not dead. “But I think we need to inform Lord Braxiatel that his brother has arrived.”


	2. Waking up: Josie Day

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Shout out to the effing amazing USS_Spocko for your amazing comment on the kast chapter (you got there eventually!), I'm still reeling someone even write that...therefor I dearly hope these next few hundred words will good, too. 
> 
> The next chapter will be a bigger update, but this is something small and yet equally important.

 

Josie wakes up to an explosion of white light. It hurts her head, pain spreading from her temples and down to the base of her neck.She closes her eyes again as soon as she opened them, seeking to escape the unbearable headache starting to set in as her senses were exposed to her surroundings.

 

Beside her, a person speaks, their voice equal parts surprised and worried. “Josie’s finally waking up.” 

 

Another voice answers, it’s tone more neutral and matter of fact. “I was almost starting to think she wouldn’t.”

 

Josie groans, carefully opening her eyes once more, one at the time and not fully at first. This time, the lights felt less intrusive, and as she moves her head to the side, she’s able to see that the person speaking are Nyssa, who’s sat on a chair beside the bed, and Panda, who is leaned against the wall on the bedside table. Nyssa got one of her arms in a sling, and Panda’s fur is a bit tousled, but otherwise they both seemed fine.

 

“You know I hear you, right? God, How long have I been out for for you to worry like that…” Josie rubbed at her face, trying to guess but finding it impossible. She had never had a good sense of time and might as well have been asleep for years for all she knew. 

 

“A few days, I should think. Time pass strangely on Gallifrey.” Nyssa smiled, vincing slightly as she accidentally moved the arm in the sling.

 

“Are you okay?” Sitting up a little straighter in the bed, Josie tried to take a closer look at Nyssa’s arm, only to have her pulling it away from her.

 

“I am fine! They have some amazing medical techniques here on Gallifrey. Better than any places in the Universe I’ve been before.” Nyssa smiled, and Josie did as well. She trusted Nyssa in her judgement. “Like you, for example. They completely restored the brain function by fixing the temporary imbalance that would otherwise be experienced as a concussion.” Nyssa pointed at a spot between Josie’s eyes.

 

“So, I’m fine? Is that what you mean?” Despite all, Josie had to admit that she felt pretty good. Certainly good enough to be out of the Hospital, anyway. She still had a bit of a headache, but it hardly stopped her from anything.

 

Nyssa shrugged, wincing once more as the injured arm moved. “Pretty much. They would have fixed my arm completely, but it was a bad break and they worried it might interfere too much with my natural healing, putting it out of play, which would be disadvantageous for future injuries when Time Lord medecine might not be accessible.” 

 

“And what about The Doctor?” The thought of her partner popped into Josie’s mind at random, much like a child realising its favourite toy was missing right before bed, and it filled her with sudden dread to think what might have happened to them.

 

“They woke up a few hours ago, I think. One of the Time Lords was supposed to be with them, I heard.” Nyssa smiled, and Josie couldn’t help but wonder how she could be so calm. Inside Josie, the panicked fear for what might have happened to The Doctor fought against an odd feeling of numbness that constantly threatens to overtake the borderline irrational fear and delete it completely. Josie was terrified, and yet, it felt as though she stood and watched her feelings exploding from the other side of a glass window. Seeing it, knowing it was there, but not experiencing it.

 

She bit her lip, gnawing on it until she felt a sharp pain and tasted blood. Josie wanted to jump out of bed and run until she found The Doctor. Until she could touch him and know that he was safe and maybe, just maybe, have it set her feelings free from their prison inside her. 

 

But still, she didn’t move. Instead, she sank back down against the pillows, relaxing, all but falling asleep as her thought tried to fight her brain and make her _react_. “I’m sleepy.” She said, completely unaware she had even spoken until she heard her own voice. “I feel like sleep.” She frowned, gnawing even more aggressively on her lip. Her hole mouth tasted of blood but it gave her something to focus on, the small jolts of pain giving her enough of a kick to stay aware of her surroundings. Sleepy, as shed said, wasn’t the right word. She  knew that, but her mind was too muddled to provide her with the right word instead

 

“If you feel like sleeping  then sleep, Josie. The President wanted to see you, but I’m quite certain it can wait if you’re feeling tired. They drugged you up quite generously, and with the strong Gallifreyan stuff too, so it’s only to be expected that you’re still quite out of it.” Looking at her friend of sorts sympathetically, Nyssa patted Josie on the cheek, letting her cool palm rest there for a moment before moving  her healthy arm and tucking Josie in.

 

Nodding, Josie let herself falling deeper down among the pillows and blankets on the generous bed. Feeling as though her mind was practically floating away into dreamland already, Josie only had time to whisper a hoarse ‘thank you’ to her new friend and ally before sweet unconsciousness came to claim her once more.


	3. Waking up: The Doctor

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here we go, emotional mess ahead!

When The Doctor woke up, it was dark. All lights were turned off and the room was shrouded in shadows, leaving The Doctor alone and blind.

 

Despite the radiating pain from their rib cage, they somehow managed to get up onto their feet, surprised to see that their legs were able to manage the weight as they stumbling forward towards the wall out of sheer stubbornness.

 

“And what, exactly, do you think you’re doing Doctor?” As The Doctor finally was coming close to the wall, a reprimanding voice spoke in the inky darkness, throwing them to the floor out of surprise.

 

“Romana?” Somehow, on some sort of intellectual level, The Doctor recognised the voice of their former companion. Hearing it, they knew that, unless they were hallucinating, Romanadvoratnalundar of Heartshaven was hiding somewhere out there in the darkness.

 

With a click, the lamps above their head came to life, leaving them squinting desperately in an attempt to get their eyes to adjust to the harsh lights overhead. 

 

“Oh, look at you! You're going to tear your stitches if you continue at this rate, you idiot!” A pair of hands wrapped around their bicep, the cool skin against their unusually hot one a blessing to The Doctor’s still healing body. “Come on now, stand. I can't drag you onto your feet unless you want me to pop my back!” 

 

Shakily, and with the help of the tiny hands grabbing on to their bicep, The Doctor managed to stand once more. Their legs were shaking and the pain in their side had doubled during their  brave attempt at leaving their bed, but it was not what had them worried as they turned to look at their friend.

 

No, what truly had them worried was the tiny woman glaring daggers at them. One look Romana showed that while they had certainly been through some nasty things in the last few days, she had not had a fun time, either. Her robes were wrinkled and her hair stood out in all kinds of places, her pale skin only further accenting the dark smudges under her eyes. Looking at her, The Doctor concluded they were not the only one in need some rest and relaxation. Still, they smiled politely at Romana's disgruntled face. “Hi there” They said calmly. “Been a while since I went to a family reunion.”

 

The joke was weak, but it seemed to hit its target as Romana giggled, smiling far too brightly for someone who was mad at him. “As I said, you’re an idiot. A completely unprofessional buffon who need to get back in bed before you pass out and I have to call the nurses.”

 

“Fine. But only for you, m’lady.” Holding on tightly to Romana’s shoulder, The Doctor let the President of Gallifrey lead them back to their bed, guiding them back down against the pillows and reattaching an IV that had obviously been removed at some point. They’d never admit it, but as they lay there on the creaky hospital bed, they were thankful to have Romana helping them. 

 

Without her, they would probably be lying in an unmoving, paine riddle heap on the floor, unable to get and unable to move.

 

“There, much better. God, I thought you would have gotten a bit wiser in the last three hundred years. Obviously, age doesn’t equal maturity.” Romana smiled weakly, sitting down on an uncomfortable-looking chair in the corner of the room and staring angrily at The Doctor. “You’re passed 1000 now, are you not?” She said the question quite normal but her voice almost accusing.

 

“And you've passed two hundred, yes. Obviously you’ve gotten some maturity along with that age, anyway. Pretty good for a President.” The Doctor countered cheekily. The pillows underneath him were soft and comfortable, and he smiled. “I’m fine, Romana. Mind you, last I remember I was aiming to get on board a red double decker bus on battlefield, but I’m guessing I passed out and missed siem stuff in between.”

 

“And missed said TARDIS being reduced to a scrap pile as it crashed at the outskirts of Arcadia, yes. We thought you were all dead at first.” A sad look swept over Romana’s face, and she frowned. Leaning backwards in the chair, The Doctor’s eyes didn’t miss the way the fabric of her dress seemed to cling to her midsection, struggling to reconcile with her slightly bloated abdomen as she moved around, seemingly uncomfortable.

 

“Are Josie and Iris alright? They didn’t get hurt, did they?” The Doctor asked, a hazy memory of a pair of brown eyes and soft hands wrapping him in bandage emerging from somewhere within their brain. Their heart ached, and just from the face Romana pulled, they could tell they were missing something. “Please tell me they weren’t injured” They beg, plead and hope that nothing horrifica has happened yet.

 

Romana sighed, tired. “They were injured, Doctor. You all were, and it’s hardly surprising considering how violently you crashed down.” Pausing, Romana rubbed her hands across her stomach. “Iris is still in healing sleep from her head injury. Josie had a concussion, but we fixed it, along with the lacerations on her hands. She’s currently resting to regain general strength. Miss Traken broke her arm, a bad breakage but not much else, so she’s already up and running. Full speed ahead.” Romana smiled, small but at least decidedly happy. 

 

“Traken?” The image at The Doctor’s mind became clearer, the face of a young woman apparent before him.  _ Traken _ .  _ Nyssa of Traken. _ “Nyssa was on the bus.” They breathed, suddenly overwhelmed as old memories of the companion they’d traveled with and the few hazy moments they could seem to recall from their time in Iris’s TARDIS. 

 

“Yeah. I was meaning to take you to meet her and Josie, whenever you feel ready. Leela’ll be there to.” Something sad passed over Romana once more  reminding The Doctor that she was most likely hiding something from them still. Naturally, they meant to find out what.

 

“Right” They said sceptically. “Are they still dating that...Andrew?” They asked, recalling the name at last minute. After Leela left, they had spent the remainder of that  regeneration trying to forget it, and everything else that related to their horrific home planet where he had somehow ended up having to leave a companion behind.

 

Romana shook her head and laughed. “No, no not with Andrew! She rather found that she...preferred me, I guess.” 

 

“But aren’t you and Brax…” The Doctor stopped themselves, shaking their head in disbelief. “Of course. A nice little triangle with you, Leela and Brax. The only sort of freedom Gallifreyans have but not humans. Good for you.”

 

Romana didn’t answer to their half-hearted encouragement, and a deep silence settled between them. For a long while, they simply sat there, Romana and The Doctor staring at each other as they waited for something, anything, to happen.

 

“Leela thought you’d died.” Finally, Romana breaks the silence. “I hand picked her to go check out the crash sight, and she came back crying and terrified. I didn’t...I thought you died, too. She was terrified, Doctor.  _ Our Leela. Terrified. _ ” Tears were threatening in Romana’s eyes, and she curled in on herself as well as the chair and her swelling midsection would allow. “When you get up out of that bed to meet them, you need to know what you are facing. How close to death you, and they were. Because they won’t let you forget it.” 

 

The Doctor sigh, but nodded. They couldn’t imagine Leela being as terrified as Romana described her, but they didn’t doubt the truth if her words, either. “Thank you. But for now, I think I need to get out of here. And I think  _ you  _ should get out of that chair, before get too big to be able to.” They laughed, ignoring the way Romana was glaring at them in favour of the weak smile nonetheless resting on her lips.

 

“I’ll be able to get out of this chair  _ perfectly fine _ once  _ you  _ have rested properly. Seriously Doctor, you can’t just rush it. You were closest to dying them all.” With one finger, Romana pointed aggressively over at The Doctor’s bandaged waist, and The Doctor blushed in embarrassment they realized she was probably right.

 

“Fine” The Doctor relented, leaning back against the pillows. “Just a little rest first.” Feeling absolutely exhausted, they finally gave in, slowly closing their eyes and letting themselves fall asleep.

 

In the corner, Romana watched the from afar, tears in her eyes as she whispered. “The legend of Gallifrey has come home.” A fond smile spread across her face. “The Doctor has come back to his people at long last.”


	4. And so, we meet again

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A reunion

“Is this him? The Doctor?” 

 

The Doctor couldn’t breath. They stood there, frozen, staring at the two women looking at them from across the room.

 

“They may regenerated, Leela. Several times...” Nyssa, the always professional Nyssa, turns over the the woman standing beside her. Patiently, she explained why The Doctor looked different than the last time Leela would have seen them. But there was a glaringly obvious uncertainty in her voice that told The Doctor she wasn’t entirely convinced, either.  “It means that they don’t have to die, but becomes an entirely new person instead. New face, new personality, same Time Lord. Hasn’t Romana ever regenerated?”

 

“No” Leela shaked her head, casting suspicious glances at The Doctor as she turned her back to them in order to whisper with Nyssa more privately. “But I think she said Lord Braxiatel did...is it a thing that males do?”

 

Taking a deep breath, The Doctor struggled to bite back a laughter as they heard what Leela had to say. Of course she didn’t understand. “I can assure that Romana has done that too, Leela! I’ve seen it happen!” The Doctor called out, hoping some casual conversation might ease the tension between them.

 

It didn’t. Instead, both girls flinched, visably pulling back as they were addressed by The Doctor. Leela’s hand moved to her trusty knife still kept on her belt, and The Doctor could feel their heart breaking into pieces. What had they become, if their former companion was ready to raise her knife again them?

 

“Schh, it’s okay. They’re just scared. They haven’t seen you in a long time.” Josie’s small hand hold onto theirs, squeezing it as she whispered calming words into their ear. The Doctor didn’t know what they’d do without them, and now more than ever they were glad to have brought her to Gallifrey.

 

“But I’m not an enemy” The Doctor whimpered pathetically, eyes glued to Leela’s hand hovering over her knife. They wanted nothing more than for her to let it go, and oh, how they wish they could just be the good old Doctor that Leela and Nyssa had used to know. Maybe then, they’d accept them.

 

“Look, maybe I can talk to them? Make them understand, yeah? Just wait here.” Josie lets go of their hand, and they let her walk away, their heart beating out of their chest as they convinced themselves not call her back.

 

Feeling as though they’ll be executed did if Josie fail, they watch as she speak to Nyssa and Leela. She is quite, whispering so quietly that not even The Doctor can hear her words. But they do hear is Leelas reply.

 

“You mean he really is The Doctor?  _ My  _ Doctor?” She exclaimed, her face full of shock as she stared down at Josie.

 

Beside her, Nyssa gave her a sharp elbow to the ribs. “He’s  _ my  _ Doctor too!” Nyssa whispered sharply, before suddenly pausing, seemingly realizing a fault in her words. “Well, my and Lady Romana’s. And Tegan and Adric, I suppose. Either way, he’s not just  _ yours _ .” Like a whiny child trying to win an argument, she took an offensive stance, glaring at Leela.

 

Over in their own  corner of the room, The Doctor laughed some more. The Doctor never understood his companions obsession with branding different generations of his as  _ theirs _ , as though they were all dogs going around pissing on The Doctor to mark their territory.

 

It was frankly ridiculous, if you considered it for any length of time, yet The Doctor loved it and they loved them for it.

 

Finally, Josie seemed to finish with Leela and Nyssa. Turning towards The Doctor, Joise positioned herself in between the two, gently taking Leela’s hand and holding it in her own, letting her squeeze her fingers.

 

It was a weird little token of comfort that The Doctor had used a lot, and which Leela had showed to be oddly fond of, preferably in private when she was not observed by others.

 

“Doctor.” Josie said, nodding at them as though encouraging them to do something. The Doctor nodded back. They got the message.

 

Josie had put a little faith to believe in their companions, but now, they needed to tip the scale in favour of believing what they were being told.

 

“Leela, Nyssa.” Softly, they said their names. “The princess of Traken, the savage of the sevateem.” They knew their words had to hit just right, so they spoke carefully. First, The Doctor turned to Nyssa. “Nyssa. My brave little girl. How much pain didn’t the Master cause you? How much, did you not miss Tremas, and your people? You always wanted to be strong. Always hide it deep inside. But I saw it, every time. And I always did my best to comfort.”

 

“Doctor. You’re  _ The Doctor _ . It’s really you. I...I can’t...how couldn’t I tell before!” Nyssa is shocked, smiling through tears threatening in her eyes as she watched The Doctor.

 

“Don’t fall for it! The devil can tell a great many lies!” Leela exclaimed, suddenly tearing away from Josie’s loose grip on her wrist to grab onto Nyssa.

 

“Leela! Of course I am The Doctor.” The Doctor is shocked, vaguely aware he should have expected Leela to be the more sceptical one. “Why wouldn’t I be The Doctor, if i say I am?”

 

“The Doctor taught me not to trust anyone. Especially not if they claimed to be  _ him. _ ” She says, quickly glancing at Nyssa. “Just because you tricked her doesn’t mean you can trick me!”

 

“But Leela, it is him! No one else could know what he told me.” Nyssa protested, obviously not knowing how stubborn the savage woman could be. Nobody, not even The Doctor, could convince Leela to believe something if she didn’t want to.

 

“Then he can prove it to me too. Tell me something, that only he would know.” Leela stares at him, dark eyes meeting his soft blue gaze. 

 

At the back of the room, Josie is observing the situation, making sure to stay out of the way as The Doctor went head to head with his former companions.

 

It’s hard and hurtful for The Doctor to see how distrustful his companions are. Even Nyssa, who had seen him regenerate into his fifth body, would not trust him until he could prove himself. Nonetheless, he got a plan.

 

Digging around in his pockets, The Doctor pray that he can find what he is looking for. “They say the evil one eats babies” He began, pulling the white paper bag out of his coat. “So would you like a jelly baby?” He holds out the bag, smiling like a maniac and thinking that it had to be enough. Because if this did not prove his identity, then there was nothing else he could do.

 

“Do you have any yellow ones?” 

 

“I want a green one.”

 

The Doctor starred, surprised, as his companion came forth, the both of them digging around in the bag of sweets as though nothing ever happened. 

 

“Save for me too!” Next comes Josie, squeezing in between Leela and Nyssa to steal a few candies for herself as well.

 

“Don’t worry, there’s enough for everyone to go around!” They laugh, picking up a few sweets of their own as everyone start to munch, almost not believing that it could be this simple to gain their trust once more.

 

For a while, they all stand there. Quietly chewing away on the candy, it was as though they were trying to adjust to being in the company of The Doctor again after such a long time.

 

Finally, it was Leela who spoke. “I thought you died.” She said, blunt like only his Leela could be. “I thought  _ she  _ died too. They all might as well have!” She point helplessly in Nyssa’s general direction, and though it wasn’t obvious, The Doctor could see she was working herself up into a frenzy, unfamiliar emotions quickly threatening to overwhelm. “You were all lying there, still like corpses in the darkness. One human body, two human bodies, I knew you had to be there but I didn’t know how to find you!” Finally, it all explodes. Tears rush down her face and she grab onto The Doctor, clinging to him like a small child as they both sat down on the floor.

 

Gently, The Doctor held her in their arms. They whispered comforting words in the language of the sevateem, rocking her as she cried against their shoulder. 

 

They’d expected this. Despite the tough appearance, Leela had more emotions than many others he had met when it truly came down to it. The only difference was, while others showed it, Leela hid it as deep down in her soul as was even possible hiding it as well as she could.

 

“Is she alright?” Quietly, Josie kneeled next to The Doctor and Leela, studying the two of them. Nyssa remains standing beside him, watching the scene sceptically. 

 

“She will be.” They look down, smile as they stroke their hands over her hair. “Won’t you, my Leela?” They call her theirs, feel the warm fondness in their chest unfolding as they affectionately claim possession of their former companion. Romana could have all the love Leela had to give, but it would never outweigh what they and Leela shared.

  
  


“I don’t think she’s just  _ your  _ Leela, Doctor.” Romanas voice filled the room, and as The Doctor lifted their head, they saw their companion entering in their full regal glory. The white a gold dress shone, her crown reflecting the light in the room and making it look like she had a golden gloria wrapped around her petite head. She smiled wryly. “I’m here for Josie?” She said, looking curiously at Josie.

 

“I’m not going anywhere!” Josie protested, scared and clinging tightly to The Doctor though it was hard to do  when he was still partly holding on to Leela.

 

“Oh, but me and The Doctor agreed you’d come with me? He told me he wanted me to entertain you while he took care of some personal business.” She laughed, giving Josie a glitter politicians fake smile. “Though it may not be much of entertainment, as you will be joining me in a council meeting.”

 

“I’m coming too!” Leela squealed, quickly freeing herself completely from The Doctor to join up at Romana’s side instead. With the exception if still trying to sweep a few remaining tears out if her face. It surprise Josie, how someone earlier crying and clinging to The Doctor like a tiny child now stood there, acting as though she’d never been nothing but a proud warrior.

 

“It’s alright, Josie. You’ll be safe and sound with Romana.” The Doctor ensures, using his now free arms to pull Josie into his embrace. “I just need you to stay with them.”

 

“Because it doesn’t matter what I think.” Josie complained. She didn’t mean to be ungrateful, understanding very well what a privilege it must be to be allowed to observe the president at work - especially with her not being a Gallifreyan, but she couldn’t feel comfortable leaving The Doctor.

 

“It’s useless to argue. Whatever we do, The Doctor always wins, Josie.” Nyssa commented beside her, scratching at her injured arm. 

 

“They get their will through. No one ever stop The Doctor.” Leela agreed, nodding. 

 

Josie starred at them, and  for the first time, she realized what she was seeing. In the company of The Doctor, it wasn’t a wartime nurse and a savaged tribal warrior staring at her.  In the company of The Doctor, Leela and Nyssa were hardly more than two tiny tots. Children, playing around with things beyond their grasp and hoping for their parents to keep them from going too far.

But Josie wasn’t a child. She was grown and strong and could stand on her own two feet, fighting against The Doctor.

 

“Well, I can decide things on my own. And i can certainly tell my boyfriend that he doesn’t decide over me!” Suddenly furious, Josie stood up, trying to stare down both Leela and Nyssa at the same time.

 

“Josie please stop” The Doctor’s hand sneak around her arm, suddenly twirling her around so they stood face to face. The Doctor’s eyes were concerned, almost pitying, and somehow it only made Josie feel worse. “Josie, please go with Romana. I understand you value your freedom, but we are on Gallifrey. This is my planet, and we are at war. I promise I won’t put myself in danger when you are gone Josie.”

 

Josie looked at The Doctor, at his soft eyes, trembling. “Promise me?” She asks, observing them as she waits for the answer.

 

The Doctor nodes. “Yes. I promise, Josie.” Smiling, they pull her into an answer, hugging her close and kissing her on the head, before pushing her off in Romana’s direction. “She is your now, Fred. Take care of her.”

 

Romana smiled. “So I will Doctor. Wildthyme is waiting for you in the suit of the House of Wetrix.I trust you will find you way?”

 

“I know where to find them. Wetrix are old friends of the Lungbarrows.” The Doctor smiled softly.

 

“So is the Arpexias.” Romana commented.

 

“And there we have Iris.” The Doctor smirked.

 

Romana shook her head. “Very well. Miss Traken, come with us you too. You're due to return to the medibay to have your arm checked.” Romana smiled, tight and polite as she gestured for Nyssa to come too. She moved with the confidence, obviously expecting the persons around her to obey.

 

Wordlessly, Leela helped the struggling Nyssa off the floor, pulling her to her feet so that the both of them could join Romana and Josie. The Doctor watched in silence as they walked out of the room, leaving him alone with his pending meeting. He felt scared, but strong all the same. 

 

What a one on one meeting with Iris Wildthyme might lead to, no one knew, not when he hadn’t seen her for so very long, but The Doctor was ready to try it. 

 

With a small smile and buzzing anxiety slowly conquering his body, they turned and walked away, disappearing down into the corridors to face the future.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comment, please!


	5. Iris Wildthyme tells a tale

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Because I love Iris Wildthyme!

**Iris Wildthyme**

 

The Doctor stood before the door to the suit of the House of Wetrix. It was a dusty, elder thing in massive wood hanging askew on rusty hinges. Already before they entered, The Doctor could hear how it would squeak. 

 

_ That's what happens when you’re the last one of your family and never home  _ The Doctor thought bitterly, trying to suppress the sorrow bubbling inside him. At least, for the larger house of Lungbarrow, they were still a few scraping by. Of Wetrix, all that was left was an exiled half breed between them and the house of Arpexia. Though through the maternal heritage, she was closer to Wetrix, Iris Arpexian traits were undeniable.

 

Before them, the door swung open on creaking hinges, and The Doctor stepped into the once grand living room. Draperies in the beautiful deep red of Prydon covered the walls, animated portraits of once great Time Lords and Ladies observing The Doctor from the walls as they stepped inside.

 

“Iris?” They called, praying Iris would answer. It was a big, dusty and cluttered place and The Doctor was uncertain he would be able to find Iris among it all on his own. 

 

“Over here, darling! Behind the statue and to the left!” Iris’s voice came echoing back, yelling at him though talking would certainly have been enough. Obviously,  the portraits found the sound disturbing, staring him down with increasingly angered stares. Even when nothing more than projections meant to imitate someone long dead, Wetrix’s were easily disturbed and angered beings.

 

Sighing, The Doctor followed the instructions, quickly moving along in the corridors. Walking up and down one hall after another,seemingly without ever getting anywhere. Along the walls were doors, at least two doussin of them by The Doctor's calculation. It made him sad, reminded him of how the suite of Lungbarrow was not much different from this one. Built for hundreds of busy Time Lords and Ladies moving in and out of the rooms, pausing to chat and sleep and stay as they fulfilled their purpose in the capital city before returning to their family houses out in the country.

 

It was supposed to be bustling and full of life, but stood as empty and barren as the House’s looms. 

 

Walking forward, The Doctor recalled visiting the Wetrix house while it still was. They had been but a time tot, a tiny child stumbling after their bigger brother up the stairs and trying to remember what their mother told them about behaving while visiting other houses. Among those memories, they could see a blind child runking past them, the sound of her laughter still lingering in his ears so many years later. That memory, the memory of an Iris that was still so incredibly young and innocent, distracted him so to the point that they never notice themselves stepping out into a small, glassed in balcony. 

 

“Oh, look who finally found their way here! Are you alright, luvie?” Iris smiled as she looked up at her old flame, then frowned as she noticed they seemed to have disassociated. “Goin doolally doesn’t suit you, Doctor. Arpexians are known for that, not Lungbarrows.”

 

“I’m not ‘doolally’ yet, Iris. Besides, I believe there is a difference between ‘doolally’ and hysterical hallucinating episodes. And I do not feel that way. I am perfectly fine.” Their smiled tightly, carefully sitting down on the chair opposite Iris. “So what are we doing here? You invited me over.”

 

“Watching the view?” Iris suggested, gesturing to what could be seen outside the big windows of the balcony. They were high up, the burning sky above them and the cultivated gardens of the Ceruleans down below. “I always loved this a child. Would sit right there, face pushed against the glass to watch the view. My father called me a Cerulean for it, for appreciating something as simple and subjective as the view out the window. Too philosophical, for him.” She laughs, but there is no humour in what she says. “Horrible old man, he was. Mother not much better, but a bit closer to me than the man.”

 

“Enjoy it while it last, then, Iris. Soon it will all burn like the battlefields out there.” The Doctor whispered, they too watching the view. It was beautiful, but hard to enjoy when they knew the rest of the solar system was burning.

 

“Wow, you’re a hootah. Thought I was getting some good company, I did. A drink?” Iris offer them a tall glass of green liquid, and without looking at it or Iris, they knows it is alcoholic.

 

“I don’t drink Iris, and you shouldn’t either.” The Doctor said harshly. They had only been fond of alcohol in a select few of their incarnations, and this one was not one of them. “It’s not like we can become intoxicated. You’d have to add a hole lot of ginger to accomplish that.”

 

“Trust me love, I do!” Iris laughed, sipping on the green drink instead. She looked out the window, and despite her earlier comments, The Doctor was convinced she was more sober and alert than she had been in a long time. “You know, when I was little, I never told no one what house I belonged to. Still don’t. Just you and Romana and good old Braxiatel that knows now.” Iris smiled, and The Doctor was suddenly reminded of that she was older than them, and had in fact gone to the Academy along with Braxiatel, though he’d be hard pressed to admit it.

 

Who’d want to admit they went to school with madmen and renegades? The Doctor didn’t think their old classmates liked to admit it either. 

 

“Have you seen Brax since you came back?” They ask, mildly surprised when Iris nodded.

 

“He was there when I woke up. Old bugger was actually  _ worried _ ” Iris smile, scratching at her head. As she does, The Doctor sees the cut across her forehead hiding under her fringe. It’s healing, already scabbed over, but The Doctor can tell it is deep enough to leave a nasty scar once it's done healing. 

 

“My brother was probably only scared to lose a valuable asset. That is the way he works” The Doctor commented, eyes still focused at Iris’s fringe and the cut hiding behind it. “Did you hurt your forehead when we crashed in Arcadia?”

 

“huh?” Confused, Iris stopped scratching. “Yes, I did. Crashed straight into the console, they told me. Lots of sharp edges there.” She sigh, and something incredibly sad appeared in her eyes as she looked at The Doctor over her shoulder, her back decidedly turned towards them. “What are we doing here, Doctor? Do they really think they make warriors out of us? Out of you, and The Rani, and The Master.” Another sigh, dragged from the bottom of her soul, leave Iris’s lips. “Why do they think I was named Jessabelle?”

 

“Ragdoll” The Doctor translated almost automatically, recognising the shame in such a short original name. Barely any ancestry vowed into it, a disappointment in every sense of the word. “Not much better than Theta Sigma.”

 

“The mystery of the end.” Iris replied, a tiny, bitter smile on her face. “The ragdoll, the mystery of the end, and what more? Oh, yes, Ushas. Push, pushing, pushed.”

 

“Koschei.” The Doctor says, softly whispering the name and apologising mentally to their old friend for even telling anyone what it ment - even though Iris would already know, either way. “Armageddon.” 

 

“It’s almost as though we were doomed from the beginning. Like they knew we were going to go A-wall, all of us.” Iris laughed, looking back at The Doctor again with eyes that spoke volumes about her broken soul. The Doctor wanted to fix it, wanted to help her, but knew that nothing could make Iris Wildthyme as whole and sane as she had once been. Most likely, she felt the same about them. “It’s funny, because we never wanted anything but to fight did we? But not against the Daleks, not for the Time Lords. We are willing to fight anything for everything in this Universe but our own families. We are loyal to the universe, but not to those who loomed us. What does that makes of us, Doctor?” Her eyes stared at them, equal parts horrified and hopeful. Horrified, by what she was saying and thinking, but hopefully that The Doctor would hold the answers she needed.

 

Only, they knew they didn’t. They didn’t know more than Iris  why they had to be the way they were. Why they could never fit in the in the stale, tiring accuracy of life in Arcadia. The Doctor could have been a politician, maybe, like their brother Braxiatel, they thought. Iris could have helped care for the great Cloister Bell, like her mother, or designed weapons deep down in the Arpexian forges like her father. The Master could have been a politician or a cloth designer, The Rani a teacher or researcher. There was so much, so, so,  _ so _ much that they all could have become, if they had not left. If not the calling of the Universe had been stronger, and they’d all turned their back on the society that once raised them.

 

The Doctor didn’t think he’d ever know if it was for better or for worse that they did.

 

“Hypocrites, maybe?” The Doctor suggested, trying not let on any emotions. They did not agree with what Iris was saying, and did not want her to think they did. “But we don’t have any families to fight for anymore, Iris. The house of Lungbarrow is down it’s last few members, and the Wetrix are down to the half that is you. Also, to that effect, I doubt the Arpexian’s would admit your paternal affiliation with the house if they can avoid it.”

 

“Hypocrites indeed! Like the rest of this bloody planet and then some.” Iris agreed, sipping a red drink and giggling. Her earlier sadness had not quite lifted, but it was clear she was attempting to go back to being her good old self. “But you have a family Doctor, still! Or does it not count with your infuriating brother and the last of the Heartshavens?” Iris smiled smugly. “Apologise, her majesty the Lady President of Gallifrey. She’s yours, as long as she and Brax are in a commitment. You’ll see, soon the looms of Lungbarrow are moving again. An unholy half breed off a tim tot from the worst genetic material imaginable, ready to follow in the steps of their parents. That is, if you and Josie don’t beat them to it.”

 

“Me and Josie?!” The Doctor exclaimed, horrified at the mere implication. “Iris, it is not like that with me and Josie! We are not even married, not on any planet in the cosmos!” They took a deep breath, trying to collect their feelings. “Besides, Gallifreyan looms do not work with human DNA. Trust me to know that. if we were to have children, we’d need to...to do the deed.” They blushed and shuddered, terrified to be having such a  conversation with the other Time Lady.

 

“You’d need to boink.” Iris said. “Don’t be embarrassed, Doctor dear, if you love her it will hardly be your first time beep bap boinking. Besides, to have a granddaughter, I assume your first body was tapping at some point.” 

 

“I was not! Susan was loomed like any proper Time Lord or Lady.” The Doctor protested angrily. Iris knew Susan was loomed, she absolutely did, and yet she teased them in such a way.

 

“Except you, then? Last I heard of you, you tried to tell some poor lady that you were half human, luvie.” Iris replied, seemingly back to her old self after the short and intense conversation they had had.

 

Rising from his chair, The Doctor felt as though they were done with the conversation, and with Iris. “I need to go Iris, Braxiatel is waiting for me. Try not to drink too much with ginger, yes?” They said, smiling slightly. No matter how they felt about Iris at the moment, they were and would always be good friends.

 

“Do you even need to ask luvie?” Iris replied, showing him one of his manic grins. “But say hi to Brax from me. And Doctor?”

 

“Yes Iris?” They turn around, slightly irritated not to be able to leave already, but feels it leaving their system immediately as they see Iris’s eyes. Big glassy sky blue orbs, staring back at them with fear and trepidation.

 

“Be careful. The Daleks are not to be trusted, but neither are the clockwork people.” Iris whisper, her brows furrowing and showing her concern and honest worry over what she was saying. “Don’t trust anyone but those you hold dear, Doctor.”

 

The Doctor shook his head, leaning against the door frame. ‘The Clockwork people’ was another name for the Time Lords, which Iris had used for as long as they had known her. The Doctor suspected it might have come to her during a hallucinatory hysterical episode, originally, and now it had stuck.

 

If there was something Iris was a master - mistress - of, it was keeping herself distant from her own people. Some could say they were, too, but the truth was that The Doctor held nothing on Iris Wildthyme. The Doctor never demied who they were, where they came from or the fact that they didn’t want to go back.

 

Iris, she hardly even saw herself as one of their people anymore. She was a transtemporal adventures from the house of aunts, growing up among the clockwork people. An entity completely separate from the Time Lady that once left Gallifrey. 

 

Smiling sweetly, The Doctor gave Iris one last long look. “Goodbye, Iris. I’ll tell Braxiatel you said hi.” They laughed. “Oh, and stay away from Grace Holloway!”

 

Silently, Iris watched as The Doctor left the room. Smiling, she turned back towards the big windows staring out over Arcadia. Like pinpricks in the distance, she could see the Ceruleans moving around in the gardens down below. In her mind, she wondered how much of it would soon be gone. How soon The Daleks tear apart the beautiful city? How much would be left afterwards, a burning wreckage like so much else in the Universe?

 

Would she, Iris Wildthyme, transtemporal adventuress supreme, be left to watch it burn?

  
  
  



	6. Love is not what I thought it would be

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aaah finally! Im so sorry for taking so long but life is crazy im going to be an unemployed high school graduate in under 2 months!!!! Hopefully getting in to uni but still im a mess rn....
> 
> STILL heres the fanfic

 

A bit scared to be leaving The Doctor behind, but daring to trust their judgement, Josie allowed herself to be whisked away from the large intersecting room. Half running, she follows a Time Lady she barely knows down the winding corridors of the Gallifreyan capital. Away from her love, away from everything that felt safe.

 

Josie had never felt more scared, and yet, she knew that she had no choice.

 

Soon enough, they came upon the medbay that Josie had only just left. The comforting hand that’s been holding on her up till now let’s go, and with words of gratitude and a slightly exaggerated bow, Nyssa bid Josie, Leela and Romana goodbye.

 

Watching her disappear in between the large double doors, Josie almost wanted to scream for her to come back. As stupid as it sounded, having only known the other woman for a little over seventy-two hours at this point, Joise felt safer with Nyssa than with the strangers that were Leela and Romana.

 

She trusted Nyssa, and though she did not doubt the other women’s sincerity, they feel so much more threatening than the young soft Trakenite she met on the red double decker bus.

 

Nonetheless, she watched Nyssa go, leaving her all alone with the savage and the president. As soon she is gone, Romana starts walking once more, and Josie hurried to follow her.

 

For a long while, Leela studied her. She walked by the President’s side, but constantly glanced over her shoulder,something seemingly bubbling in her mind.

 

Finally, it was Romana who broke the silence. “How long have you been travelling with The Doctor, Josie Day?” She asked kindly, the tall woman glancing down at her as she cuddled closer to Leela’s side. They had stopped walking, and all three turned to face each other.

 

“About three years now. And, I’ve met several versions of him. Three I know, more or less.” Josie answered. “You? How long did you travel with The Doctor?”

 

“About five years, give or take a few. Leela traveled for three, I think.” Romana answered, the other woman wrapping an arm protectively around her waist and nodding along with the statement. “Leela and I have been together on Gallifrey for about eight years, now.” Romana sighed fondly, her head leaning on Leela’s chest as she was pulled close, a pair of lips brushing against her hairline.

 

“Together?” Josie echoed, confused. “But I thought you and The Doctor’s brother….” Josie said carefully, only to be interrupted ny Leela.

 

“Braxiatel has nothing to do with my and Romana, much like we do not have anything to do with what he do with any of us or what Narvin does with either of us.” Leela explained, gesturing between herself and Romana. Josie followed her hands, trying to understand what was being said but not getting it. “It's just meat. Nothing we need to share.”

 

“I don't think I understand” Josie said quietly, looking away as Leela stared angrily at her, obviously quite irritated by Josie's lack of understanding. The words justs didn’t make sense. It’s just meat? What did she mean? How could love be  _ just meat _ ? Was she trying to explain that she and Romana was having some kind of friends with benefits deal on the side, beside Romana’s relationship with The Doctor’s brother? Surely she wouldn’t….

 

“What Leela is saying Josie, is that the rules of fidelity and respectfulness, as you humans put it, does not apply to Time Lords” Romana glanced at Leela. “And of course, humans of the future such as Leela. We do not see the point in maintaining exclusive, monogamous relationships, and so do not. I share my love with who I chose, in this case Braxiatel  **and** Leela  **and** Narvin. Who they share  _ their  _ love with, is  _ their  _ private business and I have no right to be privy to it unless they chose to share the information with me.” 

 

The information hit Josie as a speeding, quickly derailing train. Time Lords were not a monogamous race, Romana had more or less proclaimed. She had said they didn’t see the point in keeping up a monogamous relationship. That unlike humans from Josie’s time, they didn’t think of love as something special, the connection between two people.

 

_ Did The Doctor feel the same way? _

 

Josie’s heart picked up speed suddenly as she thought of The Doctor. They had been dating for over two years by now, and not once had they appeared uncomfortable with their relationship. Josie had been convinced they could be honest with each other, and that if something was amiss, The Doctor would tell her.  

 

“Josie, are you alright?” Leela speak slowly, her eyes peering curiously at Josie. They were deep and dark, and despite Josie knowing more than well that Leela was not likely to harm her, she felt scared.

 

Not just scared, but betrayed. On a planet far away from home in a galaxy where human settlers had never been, Josie had been blinded by the fact that she and Leela were of the same species.  _ Human _ . It was supposed to be a promise, a reassurance that they were both the same.

 

But the woman standing in front of her wasn’t the same. She was different, too different from Josie, and it hurt.

 

Impulsively, she steps away from Leela. Josie move away, backing until the plastic wall comes up to meet her and she can feel the sudden claustrophobic sensation adding to the general panic in her mind.

 

“Josie, what is wrong?” Romana’s voice is mild, filled with motherly concern for the woman in front of her. She steps forward, reaching out a hand to touch Josie’s arm in hopes it might calm her down. She wasn’t much for physical comfort, but knew humans greatly enjoyed it.

 

Seeing the arm made every alarm in Josie’s body, and she lashed out without second thought. In her overwhelmed mind, everything feel like a threat, a risk to her own safety, and she hit blindly against the hand, smacking it away from her with all her power. She wants everything and everyone to go, to leave her alone and disappear because she simply  _ can’t  _ take any more if it all.

 

As Romana step back, a space opens between her and Leela, and Josie sees her chance. Elbowing her way in between the two women, Josie run, as fast as she can without caring about everything she left behind.

 

It’s the basic instincts residing within a human brain. The impulse for either fight or flight. The want to survive, and the willingness to do anything to do just that. 

  
  


Considering that she’s never gone anywhere in the master city on her own, Josie has no idea where she’s going. She simply run, letting adrenaline pump through her system and allowing her hysterical mind a physical outlet as she exhausted herself by running aimlessly.

 

Corridors and rooms rush passed her on both sides, one after another disappearing in the distance as she continue to move. Step by step, she came further away from familiar areas, continuing until she was absolutely certain she’d reached a part of the city she had not visited before. Around her, men and women in expensive robes stop and stare as she run past them. Josie couldn’t care less. Even as they call out for her, angered and frightened voices telling her to stop or asking where she is going, Josie refused to give in.

 

Finally, she comes into something akin to a large ballroom. The sheer size of it, surely a hundred arms length just to reach across to the opposite wall, catch her by surprise, and she stops. Tired, she bends over, her hands on her knees as she took a deep, gasping breaths. One after another, slowly filling up her starving lungs. The air is cool and taste of sweet flowers and salt Ocean, and Josie thinks of sunrise picnics by the sea and magnificent rose gardens. Slowly, Josie stand up again, taking more time to observe the room around her now that she's got her breathing right again.

 

It’s large and light and airy, a great shift from the dark corridor she started in. White painted Wooden panels and blue draperies decorate the walls, fitting between windows that reach all the way from floor to ceiling. 

 

It was beautiful. It almost made Josie feel as though she was back on Earth. The Doctor had taken her to a great many castles since she met them, and even though she abhorred dresses fancy ball gowns had become more and more of an everyday attire while in their company.

 

Standing there, in a room fit for hundreds of people to dance, she felt at home for the first time since they left the cottage in wales.

 

Josie smiled. 

 

“Mummy look!” 

 

A child cried out in the distance, amd Josie nearly jumped out of her skin as she heard the sound. Carefully looking around her for the source of it, Josie noticed that incorporated into one of the windows, was a door. It stood half open, swaying gently in the sweet breeze.

 

Suddenly curious, Josie tip toed her way up to the opening. Carefully, she lay her hand on the cold glass, holding on to the frame as she looked outside.

 

At first, she didn’t see anything. Big hedged surrounded the exterior of the building, looking almost as though they’d been planted there in order to purposely obscure view from inside. However, if you looked close, a slim patch lead through the bushery, allowing for Josie to tiptoe her way out on the other side. 

 

What she saw there made her gasp.

 

There, on the other side of the bushes, a beautiful garden stretched out. Flower bushes and herb and vegetable patches organised into a meticulous pattern with thin dirt roads leading between them. A paradise, the garden of Eden shining in the light from Gallifrey’s suns. 

 

“Mummy look at this!” A child stumble out from behind something suspiciously similar to a rose bush, racing with the stumbling steps of baby across the ground to a woman kneeling next to some plants not to far away.

 

“That’s beautiful, Amilyn” The redhead woman smile, catching up the child in her arms and lifting her to sit on her knee as she inspect the purple and pink leaves the child is clutching in its tiny hands.

 

Josie can feel a warmth settling in her chest as she looks at all the people out there. Men and women and children, all digging and preening and fixing with a wide variety of tasks among the plants and bushes.  By their feet and around their backs, the younger children played. 

 

Along the main path, far away from Josie but moving straight towards her, a tall woman in a blue cloak strolled forward. Every few steps, she stopped, asking one of the working men and women a question, inspecting a plant or drawing a laughter out of a child. 

 

Realizing that sooner or later, the woman would probably come so close that she’d notice Josie, she drew back behind the bushes again. 

 

As she backed up, she walked straight into a hand. The open palm of the hand hit her straight in the back, and with a sudden bolt of fear, Josie turned around. 

 

Blue eyes locked with dark brown, and Josie swallowed hard.

 

“Leela”


	7. A meeting between brothers

**Irving Braxiatel**

 

Trying to keep tears at bay, The Doctor stubbornly plowed his way through the rubble that covered the floor of the Lungbarrow suit. All around them, broken furniture, pottery and family heirlooms stuck up among the pieces of stone and plaster from the collapsed ceiling. Once or twice, they couldn’t keep themselves from grabbing on to something, trying to salvage what they could form the ruins on their past. Carefully, they placed the tiny cups still standing on a dusty but miraculously untouched table in their pocket. Then, after a second, they picked up the cracked pocket projector on the floor by their feet, turning off the flickering, grainy holo picture of a Time Lady they didn’t recognise and pocketing it, too. 

 

In their mind, memories moved before The Doctors eyes. They remembered what it had been like, before the second floor collapsed and hollowed out the main living room. When everything still shone with red and gold, and when there were still people there to live their lives.

 

Before The Doctor left and the family of Lungbarrow started dying out. Before the day that the looms stopped moving and the children stopped laughing,

 

They look to a corner of the room, and remember their first wife. In their head, they see her sitting there, perched on a rickety chair with baby Susan sleeping in her knee. She’d smiled blindingly, a soft hand moving through Susan’s tiny strands of black hair. They blink, and she is gone once more. All that stood in that corner now, was a piece of red painted ceiling with a golden outline of the signe of Rassilon. Historical documentation, the memories of a hole family, destroyed completely due to nothing but hate and fear. 

 

Once, it seemed as though the Lungbarrows had always been meant to rule. Presidents and politicians and historically significant people, so many of them with their roots in Prydon, and Lungbarrow. Now all that's left were the dusty pages of the history books, their last and final resting place.

 

Even after everything and everyone had been lost, the memory of their existence would live on, an echoes of a time long past forever engraved in history.

 

Before the door to the second room on the bottom floor, The Doctor stop. A picture stands leaned against the wall there, somehow having survived the massacre. The frame snacking around it is cracked, the paint has taken damage and the once moving faces are now frozen in disapproving frowns. Nonetheless, it still stood. Seeing who were frowning in the picture, The Doctor didn’t hesitate. They kicked it, hard and powerful, over and over again until it was nothing more than splinters and rips of painted fabric with ugly brown footmarks speared on them.

 

“Does our late parents really disgust you that much, brother dear?” Braxiatel’s voice is cold and biting, and The Doctor feels immediately guilty as they hear him talking. They hadn’t meant for Braxiatel to witness the destruction they put upon his late parents, but the rage hadn’t been controllable.

 

“She was never  _ my _ mother” The Doctor rebuked strongly. No matter how many thousand years would pass, his thoughts on the matter would never change. Qenearlavaga had never their mother, and they refused to refer to her as such. 

 

Braxiatel sighed. He knew there was no idea idea to argue about a matter that had already tainted so many moments in the past. “Of course not. Just mine.” The underlying message is clear, and The Doctor can feel a sudden stab of pain in his stomach.

 

“You’re still my brother Braxiatel. Don’t do that.” The Doctor is not even looking at their brother, and yet, the psychic connection between the two is so strong they might as well be.

 

“Just a bit sentimental about the time back when you still hated me.” Braxiatel smile.

 

Sighing deeply, The Doctor finally turns around to face their brother. He stand before them, regal in his gold and red robes, a teasing smile on his newly shaved face. The Doctor laughed.

 

“You don’t have a moustache anymore!” They exclaimed. And it was true. Their brothers face was completely clean shaved, no facial hair at all. And as they laughed, they catched on to something inside their brothers mind. A wayward picture of Romana flashed through their brother’s mind, and suddenly The Doctor was not smiling anymore. “Don’t tell me Romana made you do that!” 

 

Braxiatel blushed. As much as he hated being teased by his brother, he could not deny the truth. Knowing The Doctor, they’d soon find out anyway. “She thought it tickled” He whispered, smiling happily. For his Romana, Braxiatel would do much more than for many others, and that was no small feat.

 

The Doctor grinned back at their brother, feeling unbelievably happy  for the first time in a long, long while, they felt the smallest sliver of the loving comfort Braxietels had once used to give, back when they were nothing but children. For the first time in hundreds of years, The Doctor felt home.

 

It was strange, because here they were, standing in the rubble of their family home, a broken reflection of what they had once had and lost long ago. It wasn’t a place where one should feel at home, but smiling at Braxiatel, The Doctor did.

 

“Well, if Iris Wildthyme is to be believed, it’s no wonder you’re giving up your moustache. Commitment takes sacrifice.” The Doctor smiled smugly.

 

“Commitment? You don’t mean she said…” Braxiatel was horrified. His former classmate was a gossiping, alcohol addicted hag, and no one knew what she’d proclaimed after a drink or three.

 

The Doctor’s smugness didn’t decrease as he nodded in confirmation. “You’re rushing for the looms, if rumour is to be true. Also, she says hi, by the way.” The Doctor shrugged, smiling innocently. “Apparently watching over her in the hospital made a bit of an impression.” 

 

Braxitel groaned. “Me and Romana are  _ not  _ ‘rushing for the looms’...but we have thought of it.” Braxitel frowned, looking away from The Doctor. It felt sad and heavy, his voice implying that in the end the decision would not be theres to make.

 

For even if you want children, who would want them born into a world of war and destruction? Romana and Braxiatel had duties that were bigger than themselves. It wasn't time for them to be selfish, and no one knew if it would ever be.

 

The Doctor knew this, and so did Braixtel. Between the two of them, there simply didn’t seem to be any more words to say. So, finally, after a long silence, The Doctor spoke anyway “Braxiatel, I…” The Doctor begin, but doesn’t have the time to finish, the rest of their speech suddenly drowned out by the echoing sound of an explosion.

 

The booming noises keep repeating in quick succession, and when the brothers look out the window, they can see the bolts of energy bouncing off the energy field that encase the city like a snow globe around a solitary snowman. Beneath their feet, they feel tremors shaking the very foundation of the buildings at every explosion. Even stones and rubbish around them move, dancing to the rhythm of the sickening firework display above their heads.

 

Finally, the tremors start to die off, and so does the explosion. The siege is over, the Daleks are temporarily retreating, and the Doctor breath out. The heavily damaged remains of the collapsed ceiling above them keep trembling, but the real danger is over. 

 

After a moment to breath, The Doctor is ready to speak again. However, they don’t manage a single word as they can feel the floor starting to shake again, this time almost throwing him off his feet completely. 

 

“What’s happening?!” Braxiatel ask, his voice trembling along with the jumping junk around them, but The Doctor ignore him in favour of trying to keep himself on his feet as the tremors increased.

 

A sudden thought striking The Doctor’s mind, they turn towards the window, feeling their stomach twist painfully as they see what they feared. A single powerful bolt of lightning  is still heading down towards the city. It goes fast, speeding past the warriors and come rushing straight towards the grandest building of them all. 

 

The house of chapters.

 

Before The Doctor can start to procces what is happening, an arm is pulling at them,   away from the window and the incoming bolt of lightning.

 

“Get away from there!” Braxiatel’s voice is sharp, the arm winding around The Doctor’s tightening as he threw his brother backwards into the next room, the sudden brutality making The Doctor trip on the threshold and fall.

  
  


The last thing The Doctor sees is the big ornate window exploding inwards, bringing the remains of the ceiling with it as it swept like a storm into the main living room.

 

The last The Doctor see, is the uncontrollable fear in his brothers eyes as he sacrifice himself to protect his little sibling.

 

Then, it all fades to black.

  
  
  



	8. We found love in a hopeless place

**Leela + Josie**

 

“Leela” 

 

Josie speak, and she want to say more, but there is no time for either of them to speak. A deafening explosion echoes through the garden, pulling their attention away from themselves.

 

Around them, terrified Time Ladies and lords are pointing to the sky, watching in horrid fascination as multi coloured bolts of lightning bounces off an energy field far above their heads.

 

To Josie, it looks and sounds like a firework display. She thinks of the fourth of July celebration that The Doctor brought her to for her last birthday, but instead of happy cheers and false renditions of the national anthem, the air is filled with hushed whispering and frightened sobbing. It’s horrifying and chilling and Josie wish more than anything that she could escape.

 

“Come. I know where we can go.” Beside her, Leela pull at her arm, trying to get her come along with her.

 

Taking one last look at the crying, terrified people behind her, Josie sigh. “Lead the way” She says, hoping that she will not regret going along with Leela.

 

Quietly, the both of them creep away from the garden and its people. Like hunters stalking a prey, they tip toe along the path, not making a single sound as they moved. As they reached the doors, however, the air was penetrated with sounds coming from the outside. What had been quite sobs and hushed whispering turned to ear shattering screams.

 

“Don't stop, come!” Leela is pulling at Josie even more, panic evident in her voice as she tried to make Josie come along with her, but Josie refused to move.

 

“what’s happening?!” She scream, too, and turn around, only to see bolt of lightning suddenly exploding above their heads. It’s far closer than any of the earlier bolts of lightning, and the smoldering remnants of it rain down upon the garden, putting plants and trees on fire. “They’re going to die!” She hears the screams and the rushing footsteps of the people trying to escape, but knows that the fire is spreading too fast and many of them will not stand a chance.

 

A holy paradise, suddenly turned into a burning hell as Josie watched it dissolve before her eyes.

 

“Stupid human!” With a final pull on Josie’s arm, Leela forcibly dragged her along, escaping through the doors as the first survivors of the flaming hell outside started appearing, hot on their heels as they too seeked to escape. 

 

Tears fall quickly down Josie’s cheeks as the two of them run, quick on their feet as they disappear from the bloody scene and into the trembling corridors of the great house of chapters.

 

Finally, Josie stops. She just stop walking, standing still and refusing to move. She’s not sure exactly what she is doing, but she feels like she’s dissolving, their tears running down her cheeks chipping away at her piece by piece.

 

“That was horrific” She whispered, staring at Leela’s big, blue eyes. 

 

“War is always horrific” Leela replied. Her eyes met Josie’s, and they starred at one another. To Josie’s surprise, tears were glistening on her cheeks, too. “But there are things that aren’t”

 

“Oh really?!” Josie snap, not really meaning to be so aggressive but feeling like a wreck. “So far, I’ve got a broken heart and I’ve seen people dying! If this is war then I just want to go home” She turn away, ugly sobs bubbling in her throat as she knew, she  _ knew  _ that it was her own fault she was here. How stupid she had been.

 

“If you leave, you leave The Doctor. They won't abandon us just because you do.” Leela’s voice is trembling and Josie can tell that she doesn’t believe in her own statement. That she fears, that may be, The Doctor will leave them too if Josie does.

 

But Josie knows better, of course. She meant nothing to The Doctor. She knew she wasn’t The Doctor’s first, and somewhere, and she knew she wouldn’t be the last. Rose Tyler, their next incarnation had called her. The trashy Londoner with fake blond pigtails that came to replace her.

 

“So what? I’m just the next in the long line. They couldn’t care less.” She tries to say it neutrally but her lip is trembling and it hurts so much to say, the words stocking in her throat.

 

“oh, but it’s not like that! The Doctor is not like that!” Frustrated, Leela reached out and shook Josie. “I traveled with them for four years and not  _ once  _ did they  look at me like they look at you! Not even when I dressed up all nice, they  didn’t even  _ care. _ But when they looks at you, just one short look, and their eyes are on fire!” Leela rants on, holding tight to Josie and trying to make the stupid girl understand what she knew. “The Doctor is a human, in emotions they are just like you!”

 

Josie trembled. Her inside felt on fire amd she couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “They...they love me? Just me?” She didn’t dare to believe it. She didn’t want to be hurt again.

 

Leela nodes. “I don’t understand, but you feel that way, and he does too. So please, don’t give up. There’s not much worth fighting for, but...I got Narvin and Romana. I want you have The Doctor.”

 

Josie smiled. Even with new tears threatening she smiled. Squeshing Leela’s hands she sent her a silent thank you, giving her a sacred vow. “I Will. I promise I will. Always.”

 

Leela smiled, leaning forward and kissing her lightly on the forehead. “Good luck, my brave warrior. Win the heart of the immortal.”

 


	9. I'll be at peace when they lay me down

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay so I just realized this is chapter number 9 out of ten, and chapter 1 came out on the 4th if Narch this year. In two month and 9 days i've written over 10000 words. It's crazy! Especially considering there's still been a steady stream of projects beside this one...
> 
> Now, this is the next to last chapter. Hell is going to hit loose. Is Brax really dead & what happened to The Doctor? Can I really juggle 2 main characters and 7 supporting characters without ignoring anyone? Read and find out below!!!

The Doctor woke up to blaring noises and thick smoke. Even as they opened their heavy eyelids, the darkness hardly changed.

Thick, black smoke filled with ash and the smell of fire spread around them as they tried to sit up among the rubble. 

 

Above their head, pieces of the ceiling had started falling down, crashing against the beautiful decorated hardwood floors beneath their feet and destroying it. Destruction, so entirely pointless that it hurt,  filled their vision. Scrambling to their feet, The Doctor coughed roughly as the thick smoke was dragged down into their lungs. They try to look around in the darkness, wanting to know how much has been destroyed this time, but it is too much smoke and ash and it is impossible to tell.

 

They look around, and they feel like they are forgetting something. Somewhere out there among the remains there is something they should be looking for, but it seems to escape them as soon as they try to remember what it is.

 

Suddenly, almost like a hit to the head, the memories of what happened before the explosion comes rushing back to them. It makes their stomach bubble, and without really meaning to, The Doctor let out a terrified roar. “Braxiatel!”

 

Horrified, they stumble out into the living room, their eyes looking around the less smoky rooms as they tried to hold back fearful sobs suddenly clawing at their throat. Even more litter than before coats the floor, and through the dust rising in the air, The Doctor sees the table that had so miraculously survived the last slaughter. A large piece of ceiling has landed on it this time, crushing it and reducing it down to splinters.

 

Quietly tiptoeing up to the opening in the wall that is left after the destroyed window, The Doctor takes a peek outside. Just as quickly, they look away again. The once beautiful garden down below is a wreckage of fire and destruction, the smell of charred meat rising from the blackened remains. The Doctors stomach starts bubbling violently once more, and for a moment they thinks they might throw up.

 

The only thing that stops The Doctor from doing so, is the low noise coming from down by their feet. The noise, a low and painful groaning, violently reminded The Doctor of why they had come out there in the first place. Reminded of their brother, they crouched down by the piece of fallen ceiling right next to their toe and examine it. Underneath the piece of rock, a pale limb is sticking out among the stones and glass and metal, and as it twitched slightly, The Doctor felt their hearts skipping a beat.

 

Braxiatel, still alive despite all.

 

Gently, as carefully as they could, they managed to move the piece of brick, slowly and painstakingly uncovering their brother among the rubble. He looks deathly pale, the charred red flesh across his cheek indicating burn damage from the horrific explosion he barely survived.

 

Panicked, The Doctors fingers felt for his pulse, terrified to only find a single heartbeat moving the blood through their body. One heart was better than nothing, but without professional help it would not take him far. Almost scared for what they might see, The Doctor examined the rest of their brother’s bruised and battered body, a persistent feeling of horror striking them harder and harder the more they saw. Most of the clothes their brother was wearing had been soaked in blood,the orange tinted colour fitting all too well with the vivid red and gold fabric the robes were made of. Deep burns bubbled away on swollen, blistered red flesh, and when The Doctor reached out to touch his hand, they could feel that it was  _ warm. _

 

“Braxiatel!” Romana’s voice cut through the air like a knife, and when The Doctor look up they can see her throwing open the doors; letting them hit the wall as she race through the dirt and smoke towards her oldest friend and lover. Two paramedics are at her heels, purple robes glowing in the darkness as they scuttled after the majestic president of Gallifrey.  “Irving!” She cries out again as she comes closer, seeing properly the damage that had been done to the older man. There’s a look of abject horror on her face, raw and terrified like a little child, and the swelling tears kept at bay on by insistent stubbornness. 

 

“Help him!” The Doctor bark, the hand in theirs growing hotter every second they hold it. Braxiatel was slipping, drifting further and further away from the real world, and The Doctor knows that if nothing is done soon enough, then regeneration won’t be a possibility. Their brother is all too close to dying, and The Doctor refuse to allow it.

 

The two medics shiver as they hear them scream. Fearfully, they glance at each other, before quickly turning to Romana instead. Awaiting instructions from their leader to make sure they didn’t make anything wrong. Huddling together in their purple robes, it struck The Doctor how young they looked. Small faces and big eyes spoke of a lack of experience and infield practice that made stand helpless against a real disaster.

 

“What are you waiting? Work!” Romana, too tense and fearful to be gentle, snapped. Fear soon transformed to anger and she pointed angrily at The Doctor and Braxiatel.  “Lord Braxiatel will live, and I will hold you personally responsible if he do not!” She threatened hastily. Braxiatel was slipping away and the paramedics did nothing. 

 

Nodding fearfully in response to the threat, the poor Scendeles finally got moving.

 

As the poor medics get over their original shock, however, the process is quick, and they quickly have The Doctor’s brother up on a stretcher, one of then examining injuries while the other one is reporting the case in a small hand held communication device attached to his sleeve.

 

“Yes yes, I know there’s a lot of them right now. All the Ceruleans from down there. But this one is high priority! Prydonian politician, high seated in the council. Immediate care requested on behalf of the President. Yes, Romanadvoratnalundar of Heartshaven.” The Scendle fell quiet as he listened to the reply, before speaking again. “Regeneration has commenced, he’ll need a boost if he’s to make it. We’re coming down as soon as we can.

 

As the two paramedics continued to work, a soft hand landed on The Doctors shoulder, distracting them from the scene. “Let’s go Doctor. I want to speak with you, away from here.” Romana’s eyes were sad, a veil covering her expressive face and muting all her emotions. A protective shield, saving her heart from the seriousness of the situation at hand. “Please.” She whisper, and they can see the tears burning in her eyes. Once, those eyes had held the vivid blue colour of the Ocean. Now, they were muted, a dark and murky colour like a leftover rain puddle after a storm. 

 

“Yes” They say, ignoring the medics filing out of the room, the stretcher following behind them. They try, as hard as they possibly can, not to think of the fact that the next time they see their brother, he will wear a brand new face.

 

If they ever meet him again.

 

“Good. I don’t want to stay here.” Romana said, slowly closing her eyes and taking a deep breath. “None of you should have come here in the first place, but you did, and now I want to talk to you.”

 

“So that’s how I get your attention? Almost kill your boy toys? I could try Narvin next.” The Doctor replied smugly. There was not really any animosity between them, but they needed the sharp words to show that they hadn’t changed. Because they were still the same as they had been the first time they met, and it would feel too strange and raw if they didn’t pole at one another.

 

“Do that, and you’ll have Leela at your throat. She’s very possessive of her partners. Extremely so, in fact. If you kill either of us, she’ll bring out her knives and your death will be unavoidable” Romana hit right back, smiling happily.

 

The Doctor smiled too. “So let her bring out the knives, she won’t kill me. She loves me.” 

 

Together, they strode on out into the winding hallways, trying as hard as they could to move away from everything that had just happened. Away from death and love and hurt and fear.

 

But the building has not yet settled beneath their feet and the air between them is sparking with psychic energy, whispers of thoughts and feelings passing in between the two minds.

 

_ I can’t do this it’s stupid of me to try _

 

The feeling of crying yourself to sleep and the heaviness of trying to do everything but achieving nothing rolled in over The Doctor's mind like waves from a stormy sea hitting the shore. The vast expanse of Romana’s mind, spilling in over the edges of The Doctor’s private domain and sharing her hopelessness.

 

Wishing Romana didn’t have carry such heavy, devastated feelings within her, The Doctor reached out a took her hand. Feeling the tiny, cold fist against their palm, The Doctor frowned. In the weak light, Romana’s vivid blue eyes look dull and gloomy and oh how The Doctor wish they could simply end the war right there and then.

 

“I’ll survive, you know. You don’t need to protect me.” Romana’s voice is sharp, her tiny fist suddenly pulling away from them, and The Doctor realises that much in the same way that her thought rolled in over the shores of their mind, theirs had reached her mind, too.

 

“I don’t. You’re not my companions anymore” The Doctor replies, immediately wishing they hadn’t said anything as they feel her pulling back from their touch.

 

Hurt flashed in Romana’s eyes, and in her mind she wishes The Doctor had never spoken. “No. You got a new companion now. A new companion and a partner, all in one comfortable little package of human flesh.”  She looks away, wishing and praying The Doctor will not realise how hard it still is for her to picture someone else loving The Doctor like she once did.

 

Romana didn’t love them anymore, but she didn’t want anyone else to love them, either.

 

“So, where are we going Romana?” Changing the subject completely, The Doctor looked around them curiously. The corridor surrounding them was vaguely familiar, but The Doctor thought it had been a long time since they sat foot there last.

 

“To the only place we’ll be guaranteed privacy in this house. We are going to the chamber for the house of Heartshaven” Romana whispered softly, soon stopping in front a set of thick double doors. It would have looked very much like those to the chambers of any other house, had it not been for the small solar system moving across the wood. Twin suns twisting in the middle, all the planets of the constellation of kasterborous moving around them. “Only our family, and those with our blessing, can enter these doors.” She explain, knowing that The Doctor could not know of the power with which these doors had been sealed off from the rest of the world. 

 

“And what will we do when we enter? You do not win a war by hiding behind locked doors.”  The Doctor doesn’t mean to sound quite so condescending, but it’s hard not to when they know the war has come this far - far enough to crash in the heart of the capitol. When they know, that the chances of a victory are diminishing by the second.

 

“I’ll tell you. When we get inside. But not here” Romana looks around her, suddenly paranoid, urging The Doctor in behind the double doors.

 

The Doctor didn’t wait. Romana’s fear and terror was like a bulldozer pushing at him from behind and forcing him to move. He slips between the doors to yet another chamber and stumbles out on the other side.

 

The Doctor had visited three chambers during his short stay in the capitol. Three chambers, three houses, three different designs. The moving chambers of the Wetrixes, where nothing ever stopped and everything was always changing. The historical chambers of the Lungbarrows, where everything was saved and no part of Time Lord history was ever forgotten. And at last, the living chambers of the Heartshavens, where every orbit, planet, sun and star was there to welcome those who came to visit.

 

It was  _ living _ , from floor to ceiling, in every crack and corner. Every ounce of the room sparkling with life and light and existence as all that would never die was reflected on them.

 

On the walls surrounding The Doctor and Romana, constellations and astronomical phenomenons flickered, twisted a twirled, moving like living souls across the vast expanse of space, somehow fused into the plaster of the walls.

 

“No matter how many of us die, our heritage will always live within these walls.” Romana said, her voice soft and melodious. “That’s what my mother said. She never liked space. She spent her whole life with her feet firmly on Gallifreyan soil, sharing her life with the stars only by mapping out their existence above her head.” Romana paused, taking a deep breath after she closed the doors behind her.  The air tasted of stardust and old parchment, and Romana felt at home.

 

“Well, it’s beautiful. Heartshavens have always been cartographers, haven’t you?” The Doctor asked, though they already knew the answer.  _ Politicians  _ was what Lungbarrows were, and while them and The Heartshavens were close - close enough that many halflings between the two had come to existence and left their mark on Gallifreyan society -  _ Cartographers _ would always be the trade of the house of Heartshaven.

 

Behind them, Romana sigh once more. “Of course. My mother was one. A cartographer that mapped out the stars. My father headed the restoration of the house of chapters. Do you remember that?” She asks, the small talk flowing easily from her lips.

 

The Doctor smile, turning around to face Romana. “I do. Well, I heard of it. And Earthquake, was it? Would have been right about the time you were loomed.”

 

“A half cycle afterwards. It was the day the looms stopped, they say. Neither the Lungbarrow nor Heartshaven looms have moved since.” Romana laughed. “It’s all nonsense. We’re hardly a dying breed because of an Earthquake. If anything kills us, it'll be this war.” She turns to look out the window, and so does The Doctor.

 

Down below, the once lush green garden has been burnt to a crisp. Ashes and dust and small, still persistent fires fill their vision and they look away again soon enough. 

 

“We need to end this war, Romana.” The Doctor says. They don’t know how, and don’t expect Romana to do, either, but they want it to end. “It can’t go on like this. If we don’t do something soon, we won’t be able to win”

 

“I know” Romana’s voice is cold and dead. It’s so unnaturally neutral that it send chills down The Doctors spine. “And I know a way. A way for you to end of this. It’s what I  wanted you here for.” They turn look at her, and she looks away. Tears a slowly rolling down her cheeks, but The Doctor doesn’t understand why.

 

“You want me to save Gallifrey ” The Doctor is not even surprised. No matter what happened, it was always The Doctor the Time Lords would turn to. The renegade, an outcast that would always be their first and last line of defence. “Even though it is you who devised the plan!” They feel angry. It’s like a bubbling pot of lava inside them, slowly filling up until it is threatening to overflow.

 

“Because I want you to survive”

 

“What?!” The Doctor stared at Romana. Tears flowed down her cheeks, and she bent her head down, burying her face in her hands so they couldn’t see it. 

 

“Whoever carries out the plan will survive. The rest of us, we will burn. Burn with The Daleks until none of us are left.” She clench her fists tightly, her hole face contracting with pain and terror as she close her eyes. She can feel it, a premonition running through her mind from a her yet to be. She is screaming out in pain towards a background of blazing fire.  _ She  _ is dying, and she is Romana and Romana knows that she must die. 

 

“But…” For a moment, The Doctor can’t process it. What Romana wanted them to do, how they’d achieve it and why she thought this was how it had to be. She said they would all burn, and there was but one thing on Gallifrey that could burn them all. “Romana, you can’t mean that you want me to use  _ it _ . It’s forbidden! Locked away so deep down in the archives that I couldn’t access it if I wanted to.” The Doctor felt sick. What Romana had suggested was cold blooded murder, and she expected him to commit it. It was atrocious.

 

“There’s nothing else left, Doctor. Not for any of us.” Rising Romana walks out in front of them, staring down at the burning gardens. Soon enough, all of Gallifrey would look that way. There’d be nothing left. “My actions have not satisfied The War Council. They believe I should have done more... They’re thinking of reawakening Rassilon Doctor!” With a flourish, she turns around. The robes billow around her, the great big tailfeather of the red and gold peacock spreading out as she turned around. Her eyes a big and look like sapphire stones, the tears in them making them glitter. Her hair top off the impression by encasing her pale skin like a blonde gloria, glowing against the backdrop of the ash covered garden.

 

In that moment, The Doctor found Romana beautiful. It was a starle, a surprise,  an echo of a time long long ago when a dark haired angel stepped into their TARDIS and refused to leave. But they liked it. It warmed their heart and made it thump all that much harder all of sudden, more feelings from long ago awakening from their slumber.

 

The Doctor knows that Romana is not theirs anymore, if she ever was, but in that moment they want to do nothing but hold her. So they do. They wrap their arms around her, pulling her close and resting their forehead against hers. She’s taller, this time, and they are shorter, making them a perfect match. 

 

“It’s too late, Doctor. Once Rassilon is here there will be no stopping us. He will doom us all!” Romana cry, her whole body convulsing as she leaned in against The Doctor. 

 

Carefully, they take her head in their hands, tilting it upwards and letting their eyes meet. “I am sorry Romana, but no matter what happens, The Moment can never be the answer. It is too horrific, and I will not use it. Not even if they resurrect Rassilon.” They look at her, at her quivering lips and leaking eyes and they wish that she wouldn’t have to fear. Wish they could tell her it would all be alright.“You do what you have to to keep safe from the War Council, but do not touch The Moment. It  _ can not  _ be used.” They look at her, look at her lips who are so close to theirs that they could almost kiss them, and give her their warning. 

 

They know Rassilon, have met his ghost and heard his voice. They’ve seen what happens to those that cross his path, and they do not wish for their Romana to end up there. They want to see her safe and sound, and this is the only way they know to keep her that way.

 

“Hold on to this” Romana whisper, slipping the key that’ll allow The Doctor access to the archives into their pocket. “For the day you realise I was right all along” She touch her hands to their hearts, feeling their steady double beat underneath her palms, and she wonders how they can’t see it. The point, where everything ends. All the infinite timelines with all their infinite possibilities, stretching out into the past and future like never ending tendrils of a giant alien.

They all stop at the same time, the same point in time and space where time and space will simply stop to be.

 

Romana sees it all with clarity, and as she feels their heartbeats beneath her hands and see their dark eyes looking at her, she knows they do too. But unlike her, they won’t accept where the tides are taking them.  _ Denial _ soil their thoughts and feelings, giving them a horrible bitter taste that make Romana back away. 

 

“I...I...have to go” The Doctor’s words are clumsy, their movements slow and sluggish as they start for the door. “Josie...I need to find Josie” They mumble, and though Romana knows it’s completely illogical, she can’t help the way it hurts to be rejected like that.

 

“Doctor!” She calls out, stopping them right before they’re about to leave the room. They look at her, waiting, and she swallows. “Disappear” She says. “Run, leave, go! Anywhere you can, as long as it’s far away from Gallifrey. Rassilon let you escape once already, in the Death Zones, and he won't show you mercy twice.” It’s all she has left to give them. A recommendation for them to do what they do the best, running away before disaster struck.

 

Yes, if there was anything Romana could do as her world came to an end, it was to make sure The Doctor wasn’t dragged down with them.


	10. Twists of fate takes us to the end

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WE'RE HERE!
> 
> 20316 words later, we are at the last chapter of this fanfic. HUGE THANKS to In_time_for_tea and Uss_spocko who's kept me floating.
> 
> Now, prepare for heartbreak!!!

“Are you my mummy?”

Josie starles. She’s been walking across endless corridors for ages, not sure where she was going except that the smell of fire and smoke told her she was getting closer to the ballroom and the garden. 

 

She’s been lonely, and to hear the voice of a living person scare her out of pure surprise.Slowly, Josie turns around. Behind her, a tiny girl looked up at her with big, dark eyes.

 

“Where's my mummy?” The girl asked, dragging one of her tiny hands along the side of her face. Dried blood covered the small limb, more dried blood trailing down her cheek and onto her robes. The robes themselves were blackened and burnt, and it was impossible not to see what had happened. The child, so small and innocent, was a survivor from the dalek attack.

 

“I don’t know where your mother is, little girl” Josie said slowly. Carefully, she offered her hand to the girl. “But if you come with me, I’ll find someone who can take care of you” She smiled, praying the girl would take the bait.

 

“My name is Amilyn” The little girl said stubbornly, suddenly drawing back from Josie. “And my mum always say grown-ups lie. I’ll find her myself!” The girl back towards the door, giving Josie only a moment to react before she set off running.

 

“Wait!” She screams, running after the little girl as she set off the corridors with panic beating inside her. “Come back here!” She can only imagine what the little girl will do, should no one stop her. She fears, what this small confused girl will do if no one stops her.

 

And yet  the words  _ stop her  _ doesn’t even cross her mind. It doesn’t even hit her that someone else could save this girl's life, if she would just inform them that she was in danger. Even as more and more people crowd around them in the hallways, she keep quiet, working with her task all on her own as though she was the only one capable of fixing it.

 

Finally, they come into the large ballroom. The room is already filled to the brim with injured victims, all of them in complete shock as they tried to process what has just happened to them. They’re packed so tightly together, it is impossible for Josie to continue moving ahead.

 

Despairingly, she watches the little girl slip  between the legs of the victims. Josie’s fingers only just manage to brush the ocean blue silk of her robes as she disappeared.

 

“Come back!” Josie scream for her but anong the sobbing and mumbling among the crowds, her voice was drowned out. Instead, she stands there, watching the little head of fiery locks popping up at the edge of the crowd, facing out at the fiery inferno. “No!” Another scream passed her lips, also that drowned out by all the other sounds around her, and then the girl is lost.

 

The life of a child fade away before her eyes, and Josie cry.  She cry and cry but no one even notices because so many has faded away already - people who were more important, who took presidency in the life of the people surrounding her. Today, Josie is not the only one who is crying, and her tears go unnoticed.

 

For the first time, Josie thought she knew how The Doctor felt. That little sliver of sadness, always hiding their in their eyes. How just one word could open the floodgates, triggering a world of sorrow and regret. Just one mistake, and everything slipped between your fingers. The Doctor has experienced it, and now so had Josie.

 

“Shh, it’s okay” From behind, Josie can feel arms wrapping around her, and when she turns towards them, she sees The Doctor. Their eyes are red from crying and they look exhausted, but Josie hardly notice, too caught up in her own grief to register theirs.

“She died Doctor! She died and it was all my fault because I could have stopped her but I didn’t…!” She sob, letting The Doctor hold her as she cry. As they push her against their chest she cuddles close, seeking comfort in whatever way she can get it.

 

“schh, it is okay Josie. We all make mistakes. No one blame you.” The Doctor, too, cries. They cries because they share Josie’s pain, ignoring the fact that they had been hurting already before they found Josie standing there among the survivors of the attacks. That there was a million more reasons for them to want to cry, because it felt easier to focus on Josie. “It will be alright” They sooth, wishing that they too had someone to sooth them. Quickly, however, they pushed that thought aside.

 

They didn’t deserve love and comfort, they never had, but Josie did. And they were damned if they weren't going to help as best they could.

 

Finally, a long time later, Josie had cried herself dry of tears. By then, most of the room had emptied. Paramedics, government officials and relatives had picked up the victims, and out in the gardens the fires were finally dying down.

 

“Josie, come on. It’s time for us to leave. we need to get away from this planet” Gently, The Doctor started pulling at Josie’s sleeve, attempting to guide her in the direction of the TARDIS docking bay, not yet convinced what exactly they were going to do when they reached it. After all, their TARDIS was still stranded on Karn, and they’d have to get transport to there in order to get it back.

 

“We’re leaving Gallifrey?!” The order hit Josie’s tired mind like a punch to the gut. The Doctor was fleeing again. They had told her this was the one thing they couldn’t run from, and yet, here they were, doing exactly that. “But we don’t even have a TARDIS, and...and you told me you couldn’t run from this!”

 

“Times change, Josie” The Doctor tries to be soft, tries to be kind. They didn’t want to upset her all over again, but what Romana said weighed heavily on their mind. They needed to leave Gallifrey before Rassilon returned and before The Doctor did something they couldn’t regret. “It is not safe to stay anymore, and so we need to go.” 

 

“But what about the TARDIS. You said the emergency protocols sent it to Karn! It’s another planet, Doctor, and we can’t even leave this one!” Breaking free from The Doctor’s embrace, Josie started backing away. It was going too fast, everything changing without rhyme or reason, and it scared her.

 

After having felt the weight what The Doctor carried daily, Josie didn’t trust The Doctor anymore, and his odd behaviour was only proving it further.

 

“We can figure it out, Josie! Please. I promised I’d take you with me...that I wouldn’t leave without you...but if we don’t get off this planet  _ now _ , neither of us will live long enough to break that promise. I don’t want you to die, Josie, but Rassilon will not stop until he had crushed everything I love. Until he has killed you” The Doctor offer her their hand, waiting for her to take it. It’s an offer of honesty and love and Josie can feel her heart soaring, breaking through the layer of distrust settling on her soul.  

 

She takes it, and kiss The Doctor on the cheek. “I trust you.” She says, leaning her head against their shoulder. She doesn’t know who Rassilon might be, but she understand the stakes have been raised, and that the end was closing in on them both. “If you say we have to get away, we’ll leave.” Smiling comforting Josie hugged The Doctor tight.

 

Happily, The Doctor accepted the hug. They were glad Josie trusted them, but they worried how they were to get away. For even if they got to the TARDIS docking bay, there was no telling if they could actually manage to steal one. Once, TARDISs had been conscious and living beings, but mass production had decreased their independence and individuality, which made getting hold of one without the owner's permission all the more difficult.

 

“I think I can help you get to Karn, Doctor. No need to steal a TARDIS.” The voice was smooth like silk, just a little hint of a sharp edge punctuating the woman's words. 

 

Watching her step out of the shadows, Josie felt a shiver run down her spine. The was an aura surrounding her, and Josie thought of the indescribable, unimaginable horrors and darknesses in story books. The villains with hearts so corrupt it had taken over their being.

 

It made her want to run.

 

“Ushas! What are  _ you  _ doing here?!” Terrified, The Doctor pulled Josie behind himself, hoping to protect her in case The Rani decided to try anything. They did not trust the Time Lady, and with good reason, still not having forgotten how she cost him a regeneration but a lifetime ago. 

 

“Helping you, you ungrateful bastard. It is not me who’s arse Rassilon is out for, either way.” The Rani shock her head disapprovingly, her leather clad hands resting on her hips. She was wearing a kimono like dress in black and red. The outfit was finished with a thick golden fabric wrapped tightly around her midsection, accenting her slim waist and ample bosom. Her dark, wine coloured hair was twisted and braided into a complex structure on top her head with the same gold fabric, pieces of it tumbling down her shoulders. All in all, she looked like The Rani always did. “You need to hitch a ride out of here, I’m rescuing your little Trakenite sampel already, so I might as well bring you along.”

 

“Trakenite?” Josie recognised who she was referring to immediately, suddenly feeling cold dread settling in her stomach. “what are you doing with Nyssa?!” 

 

The Rani sigh, once more rolling her eyes. “I am  _ saving  _ the sample, because unlike some of us in this room I think through every step of my plan.  _ I  _ know how to get you off this planet, and  _ I  _ know that you’ll become stupidly suicidal if I let you leave the princess to be killed. Also, biological preservation. Your little Nyssa is the last full blooded Trakenite in the universe, and I don’t want her genetic components to be lost.”

 

“Why would you care?” Josie commented, still suspicious and only held back by The Doctor’s arms around her body.

 

“What do you want Ushas? No one end up with a favor from you unless you want something from them.” The Doctor said suspiciously. 

 

“Well,  _ Theta Sigma _ , how about not dying? How about protecting people from being crushed under Rassilon's boot because they know  _ you _ ? I may be able to save my behind because I killed you once, but there are many who don’t have such a defense.” The Rani starred at the Doctor, and for the first time in a very, very long time, The Doctor thought he might see a sliver of empathy in those cold, dark eyes. 

 

The Doctor saw that she might  have changed, just a little; and they felt hope. Still, Josie's body was warm against their own and they feared to take a chance when not only their own life was in the balance. “Why should I trust you?” They asked, regretting their words as they saw the hurt burning in Rani’s eyes.

 

“Because I got an angry Trakenite in my TARDIS, and another four Gallifreyans already waiting for us on Karn.” Rani said simply, gesturing in front of her in hopes that The Doctor would get the gist and start walking.

 

“What other Gallifreyans? If you’ve set a trap it is probably a bad idea to tell us so we can avoid it.” The Doctor commented, all their hopes for her redemption quickly turning into dust.

 

“Doctor, Who is even this? Can you just explain?!” Josie, having listened to the way the conversation went back and forth, was growing exasperated. If this woman spoke the truth, it meant  she has Nyssa locked up in the TARDIS, but The Doctor barely seemed to care.

 

“ _ I  _ am The Rani. Once, I went to school with your precious Doctor. I am the first of the renegades and the best scientist this Universe has to offer.” The Rani took a deep breath, her hands tightening their hold on her hip as she turned to The Doctor. To their surprise, they could see tears welling up in her deep, dark eyes. It didn’t eliminate the evil, but it made the hope grow in The Doctor once more. “For the first and perhaps last time in my life, I am trying to do right by the Universe, and I am begging you Doctor,  _ take it”  _ She stared at them angrily, tears nonetheless flowing down her cheeks. 

 

In the end, it was not The Doctor who made the decision. It was Josie. She had watched the conversation moving back and forth, had seen the tears and pain and mistrust, before finally deciding that that was it.

 

She, at the very least, was going to take a gamble. 

 

“Let’s go. Nyssa is probably terrified by now. Where is your TARDIS?” Josie makes it simple, talking to ‘The Rani’ just as she would’ve anyone else.

 

The Rani smiled all too happily. “At the end of the bay. Green cylinder. It’s about time we go” The Rani catches on quickly, gesturing for Josie to run ahead as she walked beside The Doctor.

 

Quickening her pace just slightly, Josie made sure that she was only just out of earshot and could still gaze at them in her peripheral vision. She could see how they started to argue almost the moment she was out ahead. 

 

“I don't like this, Ushas. You have never done right by nobody, and there is no reason you would start now ” The Doctor said, their hand holding a tight grip of the woman’s wrist. 

 

Josie could see the steel in The Rani - Ushas - eyes. Anger and disgust over the treatment she received. 

 

“Every moment is a decision. Maybe five moments from now I won’t pick the right side. God knows my track record speaks against it...but so does yours, Thete, and unlike you, I am currently picking the right side. So instead of fighting me, you could do the right thing and  _ listen _ !” Ushas whispered, her speech sharp and laced with poison. “I tipped Iris off, and Koschei too. I even gave a recommendation for your precious President and that bastard brother you have, asking them to meet us on Karn. All of them.”

 

“Braxiatel is no bastard!” The Doctor argued, indignant. They seemed to be slowly giving in, however. Their frown was turning less negative, Josie could tell. Suddenly he leaned in toward Rani, whispering. “Romana gave me the key. I have it, in my pocket.”

 

Ushas eyes widened in shock and horror. “She didn’t!” The Rani hissed. “But you can’t, Doctor! Not even I would that” There was a tremor in her otherwise so confident voice, and Josie could tell, that whatever they spoke of was truly dire. “You can’t doom Gallifrey...that is where souls are truly lost”

 

Hearing this, The Doctor looked lost. Their mouth opened and closed several times, but nothing came out of it, and for each time Josie's want to intervene only grew stronger and stronger.

 

She would have intervened, had she not heard someone calling for her.

 

“Josie!”

 

Josie turned around, only to see Nyssa coming out of a green tank located near to the opening to the TARDIS docking bay. In a second, the younger woman had ran across the floors, all but throwing herself at Josie, clinging to her and hugging her tightly.

 

“Nyssa! You’re alright!” Smiling happily, Josie hugged Nyssa back, relieved to find that she had not been injured or hurt by The Rani during the time they'd been separated.

 

“Of course I’m alright!” Nyssa laughed, but the laughter quickly dies down and she looks serious instead. “At least for now. This woman, she came, and...and she offered me a rode off world. Said that if I didn't come to Karn with her, I would die because I was am acquaintance of The Doctor.” Suddenly looking quite scared, Nyssa cradled her still injured arm stuck in a sling towards her chest. 

 

“I know. She came to me and The Doctor too.” Josie nodded, hugging Nyssa tighter. “We got the TARDIS on Karn. Once we get there we’ll all be…”

 

Josie never had the time to finish the sentence as a bright red laser flew overhead. Soo, another three bright green shots followed, and Josie bent further down against the floor, trying to avoid the deadly bolt of lightning.

 

“The TARDIS! Get to the TARDIS!” Running  towards them, trying to avoid the assault and make sure The Rani came along, The Doctor screamed for them to flee.

 

Josie didn’t hesitate.

 

Grabbing onto Nyssa’s unhurt arm, she pulled the girl to her feet, trying to get her to come along with her. Nyssa, however, appeared paralysed, terrified eyes staring out into nothing as she coward from the lasers bouncing against the ceiling high above her head.

 

“Nyssa come on!” Putting her arm around

Nyssa’s shoulder, Josie managed to force the shocked Trakenite to come along with her as they fled to the safety of the The Rani’s TARDIS. 

 

Staggering under the weight of the other woman, Josie more less tripped and fell straight in through the doors of the TARDIS doors, landing harshly on a cold stone floor. 

 

Heaving a deep sigh, Josie found that she lacked the energy to pull herself up again, and instead remained lying where she had fallen. Breathing deeply, she closed her eyes and tried her best to relax her aching body.

 

From outside, she heard the sounds of people screaming mixing with the booming battle noise, and she waited for The Doctor and The Rani to appear. 

 

“DOCTOR!” Suddenly, a voice echoed louder than anything else from outside. The voice, deep and clearly male, cut through the noise of the battleground and silenced all else.

 

“DOCTOR!” A female voice echoing the menacing cry, but instead of hatred there is only fear.

 

“USHAS DON’T!” The Last scream comes from The Doctor, so horrifyingly desperate that Josoe could feel all her hairs standing on end, a shiver passing down her spine as she attempted to deduced what had happened.

 

As she lay there, praying that no one had yet to die, Josie suddenly felt a rush of adrenaline breathing life into her body, the panic that had started to settle within her mind making her move as she started to sit up. Half-way up, however, she stopped. Another sound echoed in her ears, overriding the panic the screams induced.

 

The wheezing, grinding noise of a moving Time Capsule echoed around the room as Josie stopped moving, leaning back on her elbows and trying hard to determine if this truly meant what she feared that it would. If they were truly leaving Gallifrey behind.

 

“Josie” Beside her, Josie felt a tiny hand patting on her elbow as the ship shook and whined, flying on through the Vortex towards god knew where. “I’m scared. The Rani and The Doctor is not onboard.” Nyssa’s voice cracked, quiet sobbing filling the space instead.

 

Carefully, Josie drew Nyssa into her arms, feeling the warm flesh shaking as she gripped it. “Schh, it’s going to be alright. They'll find their way to Karn, I promise you.” Despite her reassurance, tears welled up i'm Josie’s eyes too. They had to be alright, or Josie did not know what she would do.

 

They lay together, huddle for warmth and comfort, sobbing on the cold floor of an unfamiliar TARDIS as they prayed for the survival of the man they both loved would live. They didn’t know where they were going or what they were fleeing from, but they had each other, and for the moment it was all that counted.  
  


**Author's Note:**

> Comments are worth a million kudos, so please, leave me one will you? <3


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